H&H top sales from January

Hubble & Hattie started the year with a bang, with these three books reaching the top three for January!


1. Swim to recovery: canine hydrotherapy healing - Emily Wong


2.  You and your Cockapoo: The Essential Guide - David Alderton


3. Walking the Dog: Motorway walks for drivers and dogs (RAC) - Lezli Rees


Well done Swim to Recovery! And well done to our new eBook edition of Clever Dog: life lessons from the world’s most successful animal by Ryan O'Meara, which has made it into the top five eBook sales for all of Veloce! 

You can find more info about our great books, apps and eBooks over at the H&H website.

Pet Mag NZ speak cat!

Cat owners everywhere can relate to this: your cat saunters up to you, looks you right in the eye and lets out a long, loud miaow. Then another one. And another. 

Wouldn't it be lovely to know what they're trying to tell us?

Well, with the aid of our new book, Cat Speak: recognising and understanding behaviour, we can get closer than ever to understanding what our cats want to say.

This unique book offers precise, detailed observations of the behaviour of cats at play, and explains in everyday language how to interpret their meaning. With clear descriptions and colour photographs throughout, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand more about their cat.

Cat Speak is due out next month, but you can have a sneak peek, thanks to our friends over at Pet Mag NZ!

They've got an excerpt from Cat Speak featured in their latest edition, so pick up your copy today! For those of you that can't get over to New Zealand, however, you can read the preview by clicking here.

The Hoglet Diaries part 3

'It's time for the next installment of the Hoglet Watch Diaries! Last month, the hoglets were going from strength to strength, which means a change of scene for the Weymouth Three...

One of the three has a weigh-in...

...While the other two wait patiently! 

  'I really needed to move my three indoor guests outside; otherwise they wouldn't acclimatise and gain the necessary weight in time to be released before winter set in. A hedgehog needs to weigh at least 600gms before he or she will stand a chance of surviving hibernation: any less than this and the chances are they will go to sleep... and never wake up.

'My problem was, hoglet number four was already occupying one of the houses and using the only run I had, and this wasn't big enough for four of them. In any case, I'd decided that he would be kept separate from the Weymouth Three as. Being a fair bit bigger, I hoped that within two or three weeks, he'd be ready for release, so there seemed little point getting them used to each other. 

'Hmmm. What to do ...?

Hoglet Four's outside home

'Thankfully, a good friend came to the rescue by making a large run, complete with top, that would comfortably accommodate the three, and I had another house that was also big enough for them. Without further ado, the three were moved en masse to their outdoor living quarters, alongside hoglet four. (I'd already weighed the three and was happy with their gain.)

'It was much easier now to care for the hoglets, and, in order to encourage them to dig for their food, their evening meal would be serviced scattered willy-nilly around the run, mixed a little with the earth, so that they also became used to the taste of this! Immie and I would go out into the garden last thing at night and check they were managing to find the food okay, and they were. At night, it's quite important not to use a white-coloured torch, especially when you are feeding your charges, as they will associate this light with good things, and will have no fear of car headlights. As road accidents are the biggest cause of hedgehog fatalities, this is a very important point. 

'As I'd hoped, a couple of weeks later I was able to take the solo hog to a friend with a very large, safe garden so that he could be returned to the wild. He weighed just under the 600gms, but, as this was late summer, I was confident that he would gain the rest before hibernation called.'

Next month: A race to gain weight!

Burns Night and Book celebrations!

Norm Mort, author of Veloce titles American Woodies, Micro Trucks and Anglo-American cars to name a few, sent us this great photo of his Burns Night celebrations with Austin, the cover star of his brand new book, Dogs on wheels - Travelling with your canine companion.

Dogs on Wheels takes a look at you, your family, your vehicle, and most importantly your dog, and tells you how to get the most out of travelling with your four-legged friend – whether for five minutes or five hours.
Helpful advice, insights into your dog’s world, and guidance on choosing the right vehicle are only a part of this comprehensive look at travelling with your dog.
Packed with original colour photographs, and containing invaluable information and opinion from veterinarians and an animal behaviourist.

Dogs on Wheels is due in August, and you can learn more about it over at the Hubble & Hattie website!

Meet Imani!

The resident H&H hound thought it was high-time she got online and introduced herself, and we couldn't agree more! Meet Imani (Immie for short), the fluffy face behind Hubble and Hattie!

We thought what better way than for her to share her story with you, so take it away, Immie!

'Back in November 2001, I never would have thought that I would be leaving the island of my birth – Northern Cyprus – and taking a very scary plane ride to begin a new life in the UK. 

Me in my old home in Cyprus

'Why ever my adoptive mum decided that, out of all the dogs at the rescue centre on the island. it was me that she wanted to give a forever home to I will never know, as I was a fairly pitiful sight; too scared, at first, to go out on the walk with her. In fact, she carried me for a good part of the way! She wanted me to enjoy the freedom, and run around like the other 8 dogs that were walking with us that hot day. When she put me down again, I ran back in the direction of the rescue centre at first, but then something made me change my mind and I ran back to her and the others and continued the walk. Lucky for me that I did as she decided that, even though she and her partner were in Cyprus on holiday, she was going to take me home with her ...

'After much frantic arranging and long-distance calls to a quarantine kennel back home in the UK, I left my unhappy start in life and flew the 4000 miles to my new home in Dorset, arriving on November 12, 2001.

'The six months I had to spend in quarantine were helped by twice - and sometimes thrice - weekly visits from mum, and we  would have a lot of fun playing with toys that she bought me, which I'd never done before! The rules were very strict; I wasn't allowed out of my kennel, and mum had to be locked in there with me. Very often the weather wasn't good enough to go out in the run, and so we would sit together on the dias that was my bed, and mum would brush me to get me used to being groomed, which I'd also never had done before!

'Eventually, one fabulous day in May 2002 - the 20th to be precise - my 'jail term' was up and I was allowed out of quarantine. What I didn't know until that point, however, was that my mum and her partner already had two dogs, Westie sisters called Hubble and Hattie, And the thing of it was, Hubble and Hattie weren't very pleased to see me at all. Oh, we all got along okay, and there was never any fighting, but the sisters made it quite clear that I was one dog too many at Winkle Cottage ...

'Nevertheless, my life was happy and I was glad to be in England rather than Cyprus, where all the other dogs bullied me, and I never got enough to eat as I was too timid to fight back when the other rescue dogs would steal my food. Now, I had enough to eat, lots of treats, a fab garden to play in, and two walks a day. Life was pretty damn good!

'Fast forward ten years and now there's just mum and me at Winkle Cottage. Hubble and Hattie both died in 2007, at the good age of 14 years. I know mum has thought about getting another dog or – heaven help us - a cat (yuck!) but I think she knows that I might find that a bit difficult to get used to; anyway, it's really lovely with just the two of us. 

'Mum still feels very sad about Hubble and Hattie I know, but the fact that she's remembered them in a very special way, by naming an imprint after them that publishes books designed to improve animal welfare and encourage understanding and compassion for all animals, has helped her feel better about them, and she knows her gorgeous girls would be thrilled to bits that the imprint is named after them! 

'So now, as always, I go into the office every day with mum and 'help' her work on the Hubble and Hattie books. So far we've produced over 25 different ones, with many more planned for 2012 and beyond. And, best of all, I'm actually in several of them! Check out our dedicated website - www.hubbleandhattie.com - to see the sort of thing we're doing.' 

Want to keep up with Imani's comings and goings? Friend her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ImaniCricket to see more great photos, plus keep up with all the latest news and stories from our favourite publishing pooch!

Top 3 sales for H&H December 2011

Here's the rundown of the top three Hubble & Hattie books from last month!

1. Walking the Dog: Motorway Walks for Drivers and Dogs (RAC) - Lezli Rees

2. You and Your Cockapoo: The Essential Guide - David Alderton

3. The Complete Dog Massage Manual: Gentle Dog Care - Julia Robertson

Well done Walking the Dog! You can find out a bit more about the book, and the great new app, Motorway Walks & Breaks,
over at the Hubble & Hattie website!

Let's be friends!

How many of you lovely folk have a Facebook account? We do too! And we've got a page catered for everyone, with more to come!

Hubble & Hattie

For general Hubble & Hattie book news, updates, photos, links and more, check out the H&H page! You'll find lots of animal news, photos of our own Hubbles and Hatties, plus up-to-date offers on our great range of H&H books!

Find us at www.facebook.com/hubbleandhattie 

Motorway Walks & Breaks

For those of us who love to travel, and who want to take their pets

along for the ride, we've just released a great app, based on our fantastic book Walking the Dog: Motorway Walks for Drivers and Dogs. Head over the app's Facebook page for app info and reviews. Plus, we want to hear from you! What's your favourite place to go for a dog walk? Got a photo of your dog enjoying a romp outside? We'd love to see it! Upload your photos to our wall and share them with the world!

Find us at www.facebook.com/motorwaywalks

Fun and Games for Cats!

Like cats? Like our page for the great H&H book, Fun and Games for Cats! Cats and the internet go together like bread and butter, and we just can't get enough of them!

Check out this page for cat videos, cats in the news, and photos of the daily happenings of the H&H crew's own kitties.

Like the Motorway Walks & Breaks page, we want to hear from you! Got a fantastic picture of your cat having the time of her life? Upload it to our wall and share it will other cat fans. Better still, do you have a copy of Fun and Games For Cats? Why not write us a review, or send us photos of your cats testing out some of the great games in the book!

You can also find news here of upcoming cat - related H&H books, such as Cat Speak, due this March!

We've got even more great Facebook pages lined up, so keep checking back for more info We can't wait to hear from you!